PORT ANGELES — The Nippon Paper Industries USA Ltd. paper mill in Port Angeles is one of the first four companies selected to partner with the state Department of Natural Resources in renewable energy projects using biomass from state forestlands.
Public Lands Commissioner Peter Goldmark announced the partnership Wednesday — the same day that the federal government announced in an unrelated development that a Sequim Bay research laboratory will share in a grant to develop biofuels.
Nippon mill manager Harold Norlund said the relationship with DNR will help secure the volume, quality and supply of biomass and help preserve the 220 jobs at the Port Angeles plant at the entrance to Ediz Hook.
“We are encouraged here, and we’re very happy to work with DNR on this,” Norlund said.
Nippon is conducting a feasibility study on a $50 million cogeneration plant that would use woody biomass known as slash to boil water and create both heat and electricity to run the paper mill.
“We’re early in the process,” Norlund said.
Probable cost
“We have to go through several stages of estimates based on probable cost, return on capital investment, and we have to present it to Japan to keep the project going.”
Cogeneration is “several months away” from approval, Norlund said.
If approved, the Japan-based company would sell the excess energy.
After Initiative 937 passed statewide in 2007, utility districts were required to bolster development of renewable energy sources such as wood waste.
The pilot projects will use biomass from timber harvests or thinning of overcrowded or fire-prone tree stands.
Goldmark said in addition to Nippon, the three other cogeneration partners with DNR are:
• Parametrix, which will launch a pilot to convert woody biomass into liquid fuels at SDS Lumber in Klickitat County to use fast pyrolysis technology.
• Borgford BioEnergy, LLC in Stevens County, which will use wood waste to generate electricity, bio-oil, syngas, and bio-char.
• Atlas Products in Okanogan County, which will use forest biomass to produce wood pellets for heating.
“These four partners will put their technologies to work using forest products they purchase from state trust lands to produce clean, sustainable energy and rural jobs,” Goldmark said in a statement released by DNR.
“These projects have a huge potential to help encourage rural economic development and improve the health of fire-prone forests. This will hopefully be the beginning of a new green industry on state lands.”
The Biomass Initiative in 2009 authorized Natural Resources to implement the pilot projects.
Heard in Legislature
The Forest Biomass Supply Agreements Bill, which is being heard in the state Legislature this week, would allow DNR to enter into long-term biomass supply agreements.
“The selection of these projects is an important step in moving forward with a new, green energy industry, and I’m thrilled that Port Angeles’ own Nippon was chosen to participate,” said state Rep. Kevin Van De Wege, D-Sequim.
“One way to create stable, family-wage jobs in this emerging industry is to allow the state to enter into long-term biomass supply contracts with businesses.”
Meanwhile, two biofuel research grants from the U.S. Department of Energy will bring in more than $14 million to the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, which operates a marine science lab on Sequim Bay.
The laboratory will receive $7 million to develop cleaner-burning biofuels and $7.2 million to commercialize algae-based biofuels such as jet fuel and diesel.
“The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is a national leader in energy innovation and finding ways to reduce fossil fuel use,” said Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Mountlake Terrace, in a statement announcing the grant, which will also go to PNNL facilities in Hanford in Eastern Washington.
“This new funding opens the way for further breakthroughs in advancing America’s clean energy economy.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.